


when it rains, it pours

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Het, Romance, Spoilers for 3.04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 14:21:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8404924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Joe and Cecile get to take that rain check... after a little help from a friend.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my 1000th story that I've posted on AO3. 
> 
> And one that has actual canon support to the ship. How unusual. Though that also means it'll be jossed next week, but hey ho!

"So... You and Cecile."

At this time on a Friday evening - an hour past change of shift - the bar, two blocks away from CCPD headquarters, was crowded with people, mostly cops, all eager to get an early start on the weekend. The end of a long, drawn out court case that seemingly half the department had been working on, one that ended with a guilty verdict and a long stretch of jail time for a truly bad person, had brought plenty of the district attorneys out, their assistants as well, all ready to celebrate a job well done before they went home and passed out from exhaustion. There were, in fact, so many people in the bar that holding a conversation was difficult in the extreme and at first, Joe thought he'd misheard David. 

Only when he looked hard at him, noticed the grin on his face and the exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows, did he realise he hadn't. 

"Excuse me?" 

David chucked as he raised his beer to his lips. "Don't pretend you didn't hear me." He pointed a finger in Joe's direction, raised both eyebrows and grinned. "I could just order you to tell me."

Joe snorted. "Picture that." He didn't feel uncomfortable talking to David that way for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, they were both off the clock and, on the rare occasions they got together for a beer after work, there was no standing on ceremony. Secondly, before David had ever been his captain, he'd been his partner, and even before that, he'd been his friend. There was a lot of history between the two of them, a lot of water under a lot of bridges. 

It still didn't mean Joe wanted to have this conversation. 

"There's nothing to tell," he tried but David must have seen the lie written all over his face. He didn't say anything, just stood there, that grin still on his face, expectation in his eyes. 

Waiting. 

Patiently. 

Years in a cop car with this man had taught Joe that David could, quite literally, do this all day. He was pretty sure that sitting in the Captain's chair hadn't blunted his patience any either. 

"She helped us out with that Mirror Master case last week." David gave him his best "I already know that because I'm your captain" look, raised two eyebrows and nodded in the universal symbol for, "And?" 

Joe sighed. "She asked me out to dinner."

"It's about damn time!" David looked delighted. "So when's the big date?" 

Shrugging, Joe took a pull from his beer. "I had movie night with the kids... I asked for a rain check." 

David closed his eyes as if he was in pain and Joe was willing to bet that if there was a wall nearby, he'd be giving serious thought to banging his head against it. "Joe..." The word was long and drawn out, more syllables than usual. "Joseph West..." David opened his eyes, shook his head. " What am I going to do with you?" 

Joe knew a rhetorical question when he heard one, kept his mouth shut. "We have had this conversation," David reminded him. "Many times." Which Joe also had to admit was true. It had happened on patrol, back in the day. Over lunch. Over beers after work. After David got promoted, in his office over a sneaky bourbon from his bottom drawer once the squad room had emptied out and they were both officially off the clock. 

"Look, you and your kids, you've got a great relationship. That's admirable. I admire that. But they are grown." This was starting to sound uncomfortably like the conversation he'd had with Barry and Iris over the dinner table when Barry had brought up getting his own place. "You need to start thinking about Joe the man, not Joe the dad." 

Joe's eyes slid away from David, across the room to where Cecile was standing talking to two of the other DAs, both men, both of whom were smiling down at her as she smiled up at them. Wearing a dark red, sleeveless dress that hugged her curves, short enough to show off her legs, she looked fantastic - but then, Joe thought she always did. As he watched, she laughed at something one of them said and Joe's stomach twisted with something that he recognised immediately as jealousy. 

"Look at you." David's amusement broke through the jealousy, broke through the noise of the people around them. "You've hardly been able to take your eyes off her since we walked in here." Joe shot him a look, trying to deny it and David chuckled. "Which I get. She's a great lawyer, she's smart, she's loyal to her friends, she's funny and she happens to be drop dead gorgeous..." Joe lifted an eyebrow at that, taken aback and David held up a hand. "I'm gay, not blind; I can still tell these things." The hand lowered to a pointed finger, pointed at Joe's chest. "What I'm saying, Joseph..." Joe knew he was in trouble when David said his full name like that. "Is that she's way out of your league, my friend." 

His eyes were dancing when he said it so Joe didn't take him too seriously. Especially not when he followed it up with, "Which doesn't explain why she keeps looking over here too." 

Joe just about resisted the urge to swing his head around and check. 

Barely. 

David saw it and laughed. "Ok." 

"Ok, what?" Joe frowned. He knew what David looked like when he had a bright idea. 

"Ok, you can thank me in the morning." David laid his beer down on the nearest table to them, began making his way towards Cecile. Joe could feel his jaw starting to drop but he was powerless to move as he watched David approach her, tap her on the shoulder and say something into her ear. She looked curious at first, then she grinned up at David before both of them looked over at Joe, still smiling. David gave her another tap on the shoulder before continuing on his way, heading towards the door and Cecile watched him go for only a second before saying something to her two companions and walking over to Joe. 

Swearing he was going to kill David for this, Joe fixed a smile to his face. Strangely enough, it wasn't difficult. 

"So, your Captain seemed to think I should come over and talk to you," Cecile said when she was standing in front of him. "Something about how his husband was waiting outside for him and he didn't want you to be left all alone?" Joe's mouth opened in a silent "ah," and she narrowed her eyes. "His husband's not within five miles of here, is he?" 

For a second, Joe considered playing along, but only for a second. He'd had enough lies in his life over the last number of years; if they were starting something - and after his "rain check", he knew that was very much still open to debate - he wanted it to be with the truth. 

"I would be very surprised." 

Cecile's chuckle was low and throaty. "Well, since I walked all the way over here, I think you should at least buy me a drink." 

Her fingers were curled around a half-empty glass of red wine, and Joe still had more than half a beer left too. Shrugging one shoulder, he heard himself say, "Someone said it's due to rain later... how about we cash that rain check from last week and get dinner?" 

A cop for over twenty years, Joe was used to looking at people closely, cataloging the micro-reactions that few others would notice. So he didn't miss the flash of surprise that lit up Cecile's features, followed closely by a beaming smile. Both lasted for only a moment before she schooled her face into neutrality. "No movie night tonight?" 

It was hard to tell whether she was teasing or serious. "Yeah," he sighed. "About that..."

She held up one hand, screwed up her face. "I shouldn't have said that... You had plans with your kids, I understand..."

"I should have cancelled movie night." He interrupted her before he could stop himself and he could tell he'd surprised her by the way she did a double take, stopped and stared at him. "You asked me about dinner and, I wanted to, of course I did... but then... I don't know. I got nervous and I panicked and..." He shrugged, fingers picking at the label of his bottle even as he never took his eyes off hers. "I blew it." 

There was a soft smile playing around Cecile's lips, even as she narrowed her eyes. "Am I that scary?" 

Joe chuckled. "Not at all. It's just that... I've been a single dad for a long time. And let me tell you, between that and being a cop, I wasn't exactly in demand. Which, for a while, suited me... it's not like I had a whole lot of time to date. And then the years go by and before I know it, I'd got used to putting my kids first, the job first... everyone but me. I think..." He pursed his lips, blew out a breath through them. "Sometimes it just feels like I've forgotten how to do the whole relationship thing." 

Cecile nodded, like she was considering that. "What if I don't want a relationship?" she said after a moment. Her lips were twitching, her eyes teasing as she stepped closer to him, into his personal space, close enough that he could feel the heat of her body over the heat of the bar. "What if I just want to use you for your body?" 

She was smiling and he smiled too. Feeling brave suddenly, he curled his fingers, ran the back of them down her bare arm from shoulders to wrist. Goosebumps erupted on her skin in the wake of his touch and he let his eyes travel down her body. "Trust me," he said, because he may have been living like a monk but he was still a man, and he'd looked and he'd imagined, more than once. "I'd definitely be getting the better part of that deal." 

He let his hand slide down still further, let his fingers tangle with hers. Cecile's breath caught in her throat and he might have been reading too much into things but he didn't think that the way her eyes dilated as they made their way up and down his body was solely because of the dim light of the bar. 

"I might beg to differ on that one." She sounded a little breathless as she squeezed his fingers. She tilted her head. "Maybe we could go somewhere... discuss it?" 

Joe raised one eyebrow. "Over dinner?" 

The smile was back, reaching up to her eyes where it turned into something else entirely. "Yeah," she said slowly. "Dinner." 

"I was right," he told her much later, lying in her bed, her head on his chest, her body on top of his, their legs tangled together under the covers. Letting his hands slide down her body, he lingered at the small of her back, the swell of her hips, before moving lower. "I definitely got the better part of this deal." 

Cecile pressed a kiss to his sternum before lifting her head, resting her chin where her lips had just been. "And I still beg to differ." She still sounded slightly breathless, her voice a little hoarse and memories of the reason for that made Joe grin. "I have no complaints." 

Joe chuckled as he ran a finger up and down her spine, making her shiver. "Me neither." Her smile brightened then as she scooted up a little so that she could press her lips against his before settling back against his chest, wrapping her arms around him. 

"So..." Her index finger moved up his chest, down his shoulder. "How many IOUs does this use up?"

There was a smile in her voice but a certain nervousness was there too. "I don't know..." He pretended to consider it. "Probably at least two..." 

There was a reason why he picked that number and when it registered with her, she lifted her head, jaw agape in silent shock before her shoulders began to shake with laughter. "Smart-ass." 

He joined her in laughter but when he kissed her again, rolled them over so that he was on top of her, her legs bracketing his waist, the urge to laugh disappeared entirely. He lost track of time as he kissed her, as hands explored and bodies moved together, only coming back to himself fully when she arched against him, crying out his name. 

"Three," he said when her breathing returned to normal and she huffed a breath that might, once upon a time, have been a laugh. 

"As soon as I can move, I swear..." It wasn't even close to being a serious threat and Joe grinned as his hand ran over her hair, tucking an errant strand behind her ear. 

"I think I can take you." Said with enough intent to make the double entendre completely clear, she opened her eyes as she shook her head. 

"For someone who doubted himself a few hours ago, you've made a miraculous recovery." 

"What can I say... you bring out the best in me." 

"Good to know." They stared at each other for a long moment before Cecile bit her lip, her hand sliding up to cup the back of his head. "So is this where I ask if you still want to get dinner... or just leave it to breakfast?" 

This time, Joe didn't even pretend to consider it. "I don't see why I can't have both," he told her and her answering smile was everything he didn't even know he wanted. 

It turned out Chinese takeout in bed was the best dinner he'd had in years. 

Reheated leftovers for breakfast? Even better.


End file.
